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Best iPad Apps for Special Education

Educational apps can lead to significant academic and social growth in special needs students.

Built in features on the iPad, like the text-to-speech and highlighting functionalities along side differentiated content apps can accommodate a variety of IEPs and provide students with greater access to academic and social settings.

While educational apps can assist teachers in fostering academic and social success in their special needs students, the success of iPad initiatives is dependent upon the quality of the apps being used. The best iPad apps align with students’ learning needs, increase student engagement and focus, and provide clear feedback on student work. Apps should be free of risk factors like advertisements and social media and intuitive enough that students are able to work independently.

Because it can be overwhelming for educators to evaluate the many apps designed for SPED students, eSpark has compiled a list of the 12 best iPad apps for special education classrooms:

1. Ruler App

Developer: Piet Jonas

Price: Free

Benefits: Allowing students to use their tablets as rulers, this app provides special education students that struggle with spatial reasoning the ability to easily access the tools they need to learn.

2. Video Scheduler

Developer: MDR

Price: $12.99

Benefits: This checklist app allows users to monitor their own schedule. With Video Scheduler, students can gain ownership and responsibility over their own schedule and learning.

3. Proloquo2Go

Developer: AssistiveWare

Price: $249.99

Benefits: This symbol-to-voice app, designed to accommodate a range of abilities, assists nonverbal students in building their communication skills.

4. QuickCues

Developer: Fraser

Price: Free

Benefits: This app makes social scripts readily available to students navigating new, unfamiliar, and/or challenging social situations.

5. ConversationBuilder™

Developer: Mobile Education Store LLC

Price: $19.99

Benefits: This app teaches conversational norms in a visual format, allowing students to practice the auditory patterns of conversation with a group.

6. iReward

Developer: Grembe Inc.

Price: $2.99

Benefits: While traditional progress charts can be stigmatizing, this customizable app allows students to track their own behavior and successes with visual rewards.

7. Fruity Fractions

Developer: Lighthouse Learning

Price: $2.99

Benefits: Equipped with helpful hints and themed characters, this teacher-developed app introduces students to fractions. Adaptable to a variety of IEPs, this app allows students to use drawings, videos, and typed responses to demonstrate what they’ve learned.

8. Galaxies by KIDS DISCOVER

Developer: KIDS DISCOVER

Price: Free

Benefits: This interactive astronomy app lets users to take a guided tour through space, design constellations, and get hands-on experience with a telescope.

9. Dragon Dictation

Developer: Nuance Communications

Price: Free

Benefits: This voice-to-text app allows students to dictate their responses. The app boasts a convenient editing feature and creates text that can be easily be pasted into any application.

10. ArtikPix

Developer: Expressive Solutions LLC

Price: $29.99

Benefits: Designed for children with speech sound delays, this flashcard app can be used alone or in a group.

11. Articulation Station

Developer: Little Bee Speech

Price: Free

Benefits: With a variety of different matching games, flashcards, and stories, this articulation app accommodates up to six students at a time.

12. Time Timer

Developer: Time Timer LLC

Price: Free

Benefits: Allows interaction with shapes that would be tricky to manipulate without an iPad